Simple Pizza Buns Recipe

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

As a Mom I am constantly on the look out for quick and healthy lunch solutions for my kids. Lunches that aren’t too complicated to throw together during the morning rush. Lunches that are wholesome, while at the same time affordable. Lunches that the kids will actually eat…but are also healthy!

While looking to add a little bit of healthy variety to our lunch menu, my sister in law shared a pizza bun recipe with me and it was just the thing I was looking for!

We’ve made a few batches of these delicious pizza buns now and they never disappoint! My kids love them and I love the convenience having them on hand in the freezer when we’re in a hurry. I’ve since switched the dough recipe that I use for the buns. The original recipe called for sour cream, which I didn’t really want to use. With the last batch of buns we made I tried out one of my favorite, no fuss dough recipes from Our Best Bites and it worked great, so I’ll be sticking with it.

Scroll down for the recipe along with a quick how-to, a printable version of the recipe and a list of some of my favourite online resources for kid friendly {and healthy} meal ideas.

In a bowl combine water, sugar and yeast. I usually throw these ingredients directly into my Bosch mixer. Let stand for about 10 minutes.

Add salt. Stir. Add half your flour and mix well. Gradually add more flour until dough pulls away from edges of the bowl when mixing and it isn’t sticky.

Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover and let rise for 45 minutes or until double in size. Remove dough from bowl. Separate into three equal parts.

Prepare your pizza ingredients. For the pizza buns pictured we use garlic sausage, mozzarella cheese and pizza sauce, but anything goes! This is going to be just like making cinnamon buns from here on out – only with pizza fixings!

Take one portion of the dough and roll out on a lightly greased or floured surface. I typically spray my working surface with a little cooking spray or use a small amount of oil to keep the dough from sticking. Roll dough into a long skinny rectangle as you would for cinnamon rolls.

Once your dough is rolled, you can begin layering your pizza ingredients starting with the sauce. Spread sauce over the dough leaving the very edge of one of the long sides of the rectangle free from sauce so the edge will seal when rolled up. Layer meat, cheese and any other pizza toppings you’d like.

As mentioned, we used garlic sausage in our pizza buns. I prefer to cut the meat into small portions for the buns vs. using round slices. I find the smaller pieces a little more manageable and less messy when it comes time to slicing the uncooked dough filled with pizza stuff but its just a matter of personal preference. My husband had the idea to use the Universal Slicer/Shredder for our Bosch to shred the meat and it worked like a charm. If you’re going to do this, flash freeze your meat for a few minutes so its a little more firm and it will shred easier and you should use the largest size shredding attachment you have.

After all your pizza toppings have been added, begin rolling up the dough starting at the long side of the rectangle where the sauce is all the way to the edge – you want to leave that sauce free edge to be rolled up last. Roll all the way up and then pinch the edges to seal. Now using a small length of dental floss, slice off equal sized rolls.

Place rolls in a greased baking dish. Cover and allow buns to rise 30 minutes. Bake in the oven at 350 for 25 – 30 minutes or until golden brown.

In a bowl combine water, sugar and yeast. Let stand for about 10 minutes.

Add salt. Stir. Add half your flour and mix well. Gradually add more flour until dough pulls away from edges of the bowl when mixing and it isn’t sticky.

Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover and let rise for 45 minutes or until double in size. Remove dough from bowl. Separate into three equal parts.

Prepare your pizza ingredients. For the pizza buns pictured we use garlic sausage, mozzarella cheese and pizza sauce, but anything goes! This is going to be just like making cinnamon buns from here on out – only with pizza fixings!

Take one portion of the dough and roll out on a lightly greased or floured surface. I typically spray my working surface with a little cooking spray or use a small amount of oil to keep the dough from sticking. Roll dough into a long skinny rectangle as you would for cinnamon rolls.

Once your dough is rolled, you can begin layering your pizza ingredients starting with the sauce. Spread sauce over the dough leaving the very edge of one of the long sides of the rectangle free from sauce so the edge will seal when rolled up. Layer meat, cheese and any other pizza toppings you’d like.

After all your pizza toppings have been added, begin rolling up the dough starting at the long side of the rectangle where the sauce is all the way to the edge – you want to leave that sauce free edge to be rolled up last. Roll all the way up and then pinch the edges to seal. Now using a small length of dental floss, slice off equal sized rolls.

Place rolls in a greased baking dish.

Cover and allow buns to rise 30 minutes.

Bake in the oven at 350 for 25 – 30 minutes or until golden brown.

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This recipe makes a large batch and what I do as soon as they’ve cooled is package them in freezer ziploks in quantities of two in the freezer. Having them on hand on those days when we need to grab lunch and go is the best thing ever!

I typically put the buns in the kids school lunches frozen, that way the meat and cheese stays chilled until lunch time. I pack all their lunches in these 3 compartment containers from Easy Lunchboxes. I absolutely love these containers! I add a few other healthy things to their lunch along with a little treat then put the containers inside their insulated lunch bags along with a freezer pack and that’s it!

The lunch bags we use are from Costco, they’re the perfect fit for the Easy Lunchboxes, but I can’t find them sold online. They look like this and are by ROOTS.

I hope you enjoy this yummy recipe as much as our family has! What are some of your healthy, go-to lunch solutions? I’d love to hear in the comments!

For more back to school inspiration and lunch ideas check out these posts:

Rebecca Cooper is a 36-year-old wife and mother of four who lives with her family in sunny Arizona. As a photographer, crafter, author, and blogger, she finds joy and fulfillment in celebrating everyday moments. She loves to read and eat chocolate, and is a firm believer in afternoon naps. Rebecca shares her family’s adventures, photo tips, simple craft projects + more right here at Simple as That.

I love this recipe! My son has a dairy allergy, so I will simply omit the cheese. He will love it, and it will expand on his penchant for eating the same 5 lunches every week. For us, celery and peanut butter is a good go-to when we are short on time. I keep some celery cut up and quickly drop them into his reusable container with a center well. I can’t wait to try this!

Hi Rebecca! Wow – Thank you so much for featuring your amazing pizza buns in my EasyLunchboxes! Of course, I’ll be sharing them with my lunch-packing community now They’re too FAB! And good news – I am working to get my EasyLunchboxes up on Amazon.ca and Canadians will be able to purchase them with FREE shipping! Should be live within about 3-4 weeks Your blog is GORGEOUS. Thank you again Rebecca! – K.

I keep forgetting to tell you when I see you so I’m telling you HERE – Brody commented today that one of his lunch helpers had “marshmallows” in their lunch and how cool he thought that was. I knew Emily was one of his helpers, so I figured that picture above is her lunch?!I’m definitely going to try those pizza buns. I’ve been looking for a recipe! Thanks.

These pizza buns look delicious and so easy to pack in a lunch! And I’m very excited to read in the comments that they will be coming to Amazon.ca in a few weeks! Whoop! As soon as they are in I’m going to be purchasing some!

Yes! I’m going to jump in and say that of course you can make them with whole wheat. I haven’t had “white death” (white flour) in my house for about 10 years. I have never found a recipe that couldn’t be made with whole wheat as opposed white flour. It tastes better and is MUCH healthier (not only is there more fibre but the original nutrition is intact and doesn’t need to be added back in…ie “enriched”). You might need to use just a tiny bit less flour but today’s whole wheat flour is so finely milled that you can probably just go ahead and substitute an equal amount. I hope perhaps the creator of this recipe will switch, too! Once you eliminate the white stuff from your house, your family will get used to the better versions of your favourites!

Trying the today! I noticed that you didn’t have any flour on the surface you were rolling on. How was is possible? I’m waiting for mine to come out of the oven and I must have used too much flour because I can see it on the rolls.

Oh boy….I’ve always just eyeballed it Lotte! 😉 Maybe as big as a 9X13 in pan or a bit bigger. The rectangular shape is more important than anything. The bigger the rectangle the bigger your pizza buns will be.

Yum!! Made these for our lunch at home today. Made then with 100% whole wheat and used a veggie loaded tomatoe sauce (basically pureed spaghetti sauce) with some extra basil and oregano. Very delicious I look forward to adding these to the lunchbox rotation.

Made the Pizza Buns today to feed my 9 year old & his friend as an after school snack. OMG, the boys just gobbled them up! Kid Tested & Approved! I am so excited and wondering what other combinations I could use! THANK YOU! I am a little apprehensive about freezing them for his school lunches because his lunch period is at 11 am (school begins at 8:15 am) and I am not sure if they will be defrosted in time.

Love the pizza bun idea! I would add though that it takes a long time, plan on the entire evening, but the good part is it will cover several lunches over time. I would suggest refrigerating dough a few minutes before rolling and flouring the surface to avoid sticky dough. Mine was too warm on the first third, too thin, and they would not stand up or form a round bun shape. After learning that lesson, it was better. I also did not roll dough as thin, used less toppings and rolled with a slight pick up method to keep toppings from pushing to edge. I then cut them nearly an inch and a half thick to help them stand up. Looking forward to these and hoping next time with these adjustments they will look like yours! Yours are beautiful!

Thank you so much! Have made this a number of times and kids go ga-ga over them, fresh from the oven and frozen for lunch the next day. Both work beautifully and have made last minute lunch-making a breeze! Especially if combined with previously frozen mini-muffins. 😉

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